Manual Scavenging

Manual scavenging, in India, is a practice as unhygienic as it is disgusting and indignifying.

It has also, for a long, been a tool of caste oppression- certain castes like the Valmikis have been practising it historically.

Why manual scavenging is a deplorable practice is apparent in its very definition: the unsafe and manual removal of fresh and untreated excreta from dry toilets and pit latrines.

The International Labour Organisation recognises three types of manual scavenging in India:

1. Removal of human excrement from dry latrines and streets
2. Cleaning septic tanks
3. Cleaning gutters and sewers

Manual removal of excrement dropped from trains on railway tracks is another form of manual scavenging.

In 1993 and 2013, the Indian government passed laws banning manual scavenging by banning the employment of people as manual scavengers. It even had provisions to rehabilitate former scavengers.

But the reality is less than ideal. The norms continue to be flouted. This degrading, unsanitary practice continues unabated.

According to a Census in 2011, there are nearly 2.6 million dry latrines in the country.

Out of these, 13,14,652 toilets are where human excreta is flushed in open drains and 7,94,390 dry latrines where human excreta is cleaned manually.

73 percent of such toilets are in rural areas, and 27 percent are in urban areas.

To make matters worse, states do not report the number of manual scavengers being used in dry toilets across states.

Magsaysay Award winner Bezwada Wilson says there are 1.6 lakh safai karmcharis cleaning dry toilets in India.

This is despite the government’s claims that flush toilets have been built under the Swacch Bharat Mission.

In July 2016, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) required the Secretary and DG-level officials from all states and union territories to share data on the total number of dry latrines and manual scavengers.

The data received had a major discrepancy in the number of dry latrines and manual scavengers.

This mismatch is a serious discrepancy and points to the failure of State governments to identify manual scavengers and address their problems.

• Also Read – Manual Scavenging And The Swachh Bharat Story

As per the latest Socio-Economic Caste Census Data, 2015, 180657 households in India still make a living from manual scavenging.

The NCSC notes that expenditure on rehabilitating manual scavengers under the Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers was negligible- out of 470.19 crore allotted for 2015-16, the actual expenditure was nil.

Manual scavenging is an issue as socio-economic as it is about hygiene.

The caste system forces people into manual scavenging and ostracises them for it needs to go.

In a rapidly modernising India, such regressive, archaic attitudes will only hinder the development of India and hamper it from becoming the superpower it aims to become.

On that note, the attitude of government officials needs to change as well.

And it’s not just the apathy towards manual scavengers, but faking figures to make it look like the district/village has new toilets and no safai karmcharis, to reach the goal for Swacch Bharat Mission, is wrong.

A better approach to reaching the goals set by the Swachh Bharat Mission would be to acknowledge the problem first and then work with people, resources, and proper expertise to resolve the issue and ensure a cleaner India.

Cleaner India because people deserve a good standard of living- part of which is a basic necessity like flush toilets and clean washrooms.

Only when people are healthy can they contribute to national development.

Also Read

• Saving Sanitation Workers: Laws Or Behavioral Change?
• Benefits of Waterless Bio-Toilet – A Sustainable Sanitation Solution